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De Monarchia (A Work of Political the Reading Assignments for This E N G L H 2 9 5 --- 0 3 4 DDD A N T E ’’’ S “ B“BB EAUTIFUL LLL I E S ” :”:: AAA LLEGORY AAA N D III NTERPRETATION Fall 2008 • TR 2:00-3:15 • [Room number] • 3 credits Prerequisites: open to students in the University HonorsHonors Program and others with permission This course satisfies the Honors English requirement and can be taken for MedievalMedieval Studies or Catholic Studies credit. Dr. John T. Sebastian • [email protected] 324 Bobet Hall • 504.865.2277 Office hours MW 1:30-4:00 p.m. • by appointment In his Convivio , the great Florentine poet Dante distinguishes between an allegory of the poets and one of the theologians: the former, he claims, hides truth underneath a “beautiful lie.” In this course, students will examine Dante’s philosophical, linguistic, political, and above all his poetic writings (his beautiful lies) from the perspective of medieval concepts of allegory. In the Middle Ages allegory was a compositional mode (Dante’s allegory of the poets) as well as a hermeneutic, a tool for interpreting a text (the allegory of the theologians). Beginning with selections from Augustine’s De doctrina Christiana , students will explore how medieval poets and theologians used allegory both to create imaginary worlds and to interpret reality. Other readings will include Dino Compagni’s chronicle of medieval Florence, selections from Virgil’s Aeneid , Italian love poetry, Boccaccio’s writings on poetics, and Dante’s Convivio , De vulgari eloquentia (on language), De monarchia (a work of political philosophy), Vita nuova (a collection of love poems with accompanying commentary), and his masterpiece, the Commedia (in its entirety: Inferno , Purgatorio , and Paradiso ), all in translation, although students with some Italian or Latin will be encouraged to form an occasional reading group in order to study the original languages. This interdisciplinary course should appeal to students with interests in poetry, history, languages and linguistics, philosophy, theology, cosmology, optics, literary theory, hermeneutics, and art, to name but a few. * * * C A V E A T L E C T O R * * * The reading assignments for this course are substantive. If you are not willing or able to commit to reading the required material carefully, please consider enrolling in a diffdifferenterent course. 2 CCC OURSE GGG OALS AND LLL EARNING OOO UTCOMES The course meets the Common Curriculum’s goals of developing: • “Effective skills in research, writing, speaking, reading and listening,” through routine written assignments, including a research project, and in-class presentations and discussion; • “An understanding of philosophical and religious traditions,” through careful analysis of Dante’s political and philosophical writings and his mystical and theological vision represented by the Commedia , as well as through discussion of medieval hermeneutics and papal history; • “Knowledge and appreciation of the fine arts and great works of literature,” through an intensive study of several masterworks of medieval literature, especially Dante’s Commedia ; • “Comprehension of the great historical, economic, political, social and technological forces that shape societies,” through a consideration of Florentine politics and the struggle between secular and spiritual authorities in the Middle Ages; • “An awareness of the connections among disciplines and of the interrelationships among all things,” by exploring the literary, historical, political, philosophical, theological, and scientific contexts of Dante’s poetry. RRR EQUIRED MMM ATERIALS These textbooks will be available through the campus bookstore. Students wishing to purchase their books from another vendor should be sure to purchase these editions and translations only. While students are encouraged toto browse in other trtranslationsanslations of the Commedia in particular, it is crucially important that everyeveryoneone read from the HollandersHollanders’’’’ edition and translation, which includes invinvinvaluableinv aluable commentary and other apparatusapparatus.... • Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching , trans. Green (Oxford) • Daniel E. Bornstein (trans.), Dino Compagni’s Chronicle of Florence (Penn) • Dante, Vita nuova , trans. Musa (Oxford) • Dante, Monarchy , trans. Shaw (Cambridge) • Dante, Inferno , trans. Hollander and Hollander (Anchor) • Dante, Purgatorio , trans. Hollander and Hollander (Anchor) • Dante, Paradiso , trans. Hollander and Hollander (Anchor) • Optional: Virgil, The Aeneid , trans. Fagles (Penguin) 3 Additional readings will be made available as handouts and through Blackboard and library reserve. Students are responsible for completing all readings by the start of class on the day for which they are assigned and should bring all readingsreadings to class, including pprintedrinted copies of articles from Blackboard. Students who regularly fail to complete the readings or bring them to class will be penalized. CCC OURSE RRR EQUIREMENTS N.b.: all assignments are required and must be completed in oorderrder for a student to pass the course. The primary source for information about course assignments, besides this syllabus, is a Blackboard web site, http://loyno.blackboard.com . Students enrolled in the course will be able to access the site by clicking on the link for 08F08F08F-08F ---ENGLENGLENGL----H295H295H295----000034343434:: DANTE’S BEAUTIFUL LIESLIES. Materials that supplement scheduled reading assignments will routinely be posted to Blackboard. Students are responsible for checking regularly for, and reviewing, these materials. Students will also discover on Blackboard a variety of tools for consultation during the semester. Blackboard and e-mail are essential to this class; anyone who is not able and/or willing to check both regularly will find succeeding iinn this course extremely challenging. 1. Dante’s World Wiki (20%). Participants in the course will collectively construct an original Blackboard-based wiki on the world of Dante. The framework for the wiki will come from brief (500-word) reports on important figures and concepts from Due- and Trecento literature and the arts, secular and ecclesiastical politics and political theory, religious movements, theology and philosophy, and other areas of interest for Dante studies. These initial topics will be more or less arbitrarily assigned with initial postings due by the beginning of the second week of class. Students will then supplement, comment on, and create links across these postings over the course of the semester based on their readings of course materials and their independent research. In all instances, sources for the information posted will be carefully cited not only for the sake of giving due acknowledgment to others for their work but also so that other readers of the wiki may pursue further the material being discussed. Contributions might include visual material and links to other internet sites as well as written material, including relevant and representative quotations from primary sources. Further instructions will be distributed under separate cover with a bibliography of references for the initial postings. The grade for this assignment is contingent on both the initial report and on the quantity and quality of subsequent improvements to the wiki. 4 2. Reflection essay (10%). Several weeks into the term, students will prepare a brief (1000-word) essay in which they reflect on the theoretical materials presented at the beginning of the course. Students will consider the assigned readings and in-class lectures and discussions on medieval and more recent theories of literary signification and interpretation and should reflect on their own practices of reading and interpretive theories. 3. Bibliographic project ((22220%).0%). Each student will be assigned a recent work of criticism about Dante’s writings, his milieu, or theories of allegory and interpretation to read, assess, and report on during the term. Each student will discuss his or her book in a not-more-than-10-minute in-class presentation on an assigned day. The oral presentation must be accompanied by a one-page précis summarizing the remarks offered. A 1000- to 1500-word review of the book is also due the day of the presentation. For all pieces of this assignment (oral presentation, précis, and review) students should not think in terms of a book report but rather of assessing and analyzing the project’s arguments and contributions. What is the book’s general thesis? How does the author situate his or her thesis with respect to scholars doing related work? How is the book organized? What are its main arguments? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Is there a discernible methodology, ideology, or bias to the book? What are the book’s contributions to the field of Dante studies and to the work of the course? 4. Research paper (30%). Students will write an essay (10-12 pp.) on a topic of their choosing in consultation with the instructor. Specific guidelines will be distributed at a later date along with topic suggestions. A separate evening meeting of the class will be scheduled for the end of the term at which each student will describe his or her project for the other members of the seminar in no more than five minutes. The instructor will supply a light dinner and refreshments for the occasion. 555.5. Participation (20%). Participation points in this course can be variously earned, enabling students to participate in ways that best suit their individual preferences and that extend the communal enterprise of learning and teaching
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